Crypto Revolution: Is it time to Cancel your Bank?
by Ryan DennisRyan grew up in Queen's New York and was educated at Hampton University. He worked in corporate America until discovering Bitcoin in 2013. Now he's Director of Communication at Exodus.
Dec 16, 2021
in Cryptospace
One thing that has come about in this age of freely available information is "cancel culture." The term is often used in a negative sense, implying that a person who worked hard to build a craft or a career can have it all torn down just because someone else was offended by a social media post.
But good things have also come from “cancel culture.” Persistent bullies and sexual aggressors have been removed from the positions of power that they exploited. Former colonial countries have paid reparations to indigenous peoples for historic mistreatment. And people across the world who may have faced the same injustice can band together and make their voices stronger.
And on that note, maybe it’s time that we finally canceled the banks.
Cancel your Bank
In our increasingly globalized world, money is the main vehicle that we use to relate to each other. We trust financial institutions to keep our world moving. We trust that extralegal multi-nationals are doing what they're supposed to do, in the same way that we pay taxes to our governments because we trust that they are representing our best interests.
But those we trust to keep our money safe and to protect us from scams, have been the ones scamming us. The dividing line between government, large corporations, and the media has been slowly eroded in the past few decades, with the net result being the most unequal wealth distribution seen in almost a century and the fact that the trusted institutions have lost their trust.
Western economies are built around the idea of giving space for the largest entities to thrive, obeying free market capitalism, and following the "law of the jungle." But after the 2008 economic crash, the banks that were largely at fault for the recession were rewarded with taxpayer-funded bailouts, as they were deemed “too big to fail.”
We do have to keep in mind that the 20th century also saw billions of people taken out of extreme poverty. We should not throw the baby out with the bathwater, yet, if we believe that it’s human nature to get ahead or take advantage of others, we should remove all elements of “trust” from the banks, which are driven primarily to profit from others. Then, we should get more in touch with the better side of our nature, and move forward together through cooperation.
Thanks to blockchain, we now have the technology to do this. And no matter what we’re told in the media, it’s time that we get together and talk about how we’re going to cancel the banks.
Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs)
The system of money is the most important system we have in the world because it deeply touches all aspects of our lives: entertainment, education, war, childbirth, weddings, funerals.
Most of us, Americans especially, are rightly proud of our democracies and love talking about our right to vote. But the system of money we have is opaque, and because of this, our votes may not actually make a difference. Sure, the person we vote for gets into office, but does the system actually change? And would a politician get financial backing for their campaign if they were truly going to shake things up?
DAOs on the other hand are transparent, and if structured correctly, truly democratic.
When I put my money into a DeFi protocol, I know that the next person thinking about investing can see my money too. Using transparent blockchain ledgers, you can see other people contributing, voting, strengthening the network. And the blockchain makes sure that none of these transactions can be hidden or altered in order to gain an advantage over others. Nobody “owns” these organizations. Everybody can see the rules that are hard-coded into the algorithm. And in the case of things like staking, community cooperation is rewarded with crypto payouts. Attempts at sabotage are penalized with “slashing”; or loss of funds. It is real democracy, backed up by technology that is not susceptible to any of the weaknesses that are apparently human nature.
Removing the Need to Trust
Now that we can use decentralized networks to remove the need for trust, every single aspect of our lives should be looked at and researched to find out how we can make data-driven decisions to improve the transparency and operational efficiency of our institutions.
Across the blockchain world right now, aside from the scams and ponzis that are over-represented in the media, there is a culture of "let's really open up about what's really happening here, and let's do this together.” At Exodus for example, all employees can see each other's salaries. All employees are paid in Bitcoin, on an open ledger. All employees can submit ideas about how the company runs, and be heard. That is the opposite of the culture of the banks. And until banks start to do things the same way, we should move away from legacy finance.
Cryptocurrency doesn’t give a damn about your race, your nationality, or your credit rating. Owning crypto allows people to experience true ownership of an asset that cannot be inflated away or seized by governments. We should take all those interest accounts, all those investments, all the stocks, and put them on the blockchain through DAOs. All of them.
Moving forward, we should not forget that we finally have the means with which we can cancel the banks.
This content is for informational purposes only and is not investment advice. You should consult a qualified licensed advisor before engaging in any transaction.